


Elana

by bookscape



Category: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 08:34:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20306554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookscape/pseuds/bookscape
Summary: Elana, a nurse with psychic abilities, tries to figure out a working relationship with Dr. Jamison. Follows 'And What do the Stars say About Me?'





	Elana

Elana  
(Follows “And What do the Stars Say About Me?)

Elana Brockman glared at her new boss. “Do not patronize me, Dr. Jamieson. I am not a trained monkey.”

Jamie felt heat rise to his cheeks and he had to bite off a quick retort. He was beginning to wonder just why he had let the admiral talk him into taking her on here at the medical facility. She was insufferable! He didn’t know how to approach the woman. If he ignored her abilities, he insulted her. If he addressed them, he seemed to always say something wrong. Then he remembered Lee’s explanation and her own comments when she was recuperating from the gunshot wound that had been meant for the captain. There was the fact that she had saved Lee Crane’s life. He owed her consideration for that one fact, whether she had this gift that Crane and the admiral were all agog about or not. 

He reached for his coffee cup, looked inside and realized it was empty. At least it gave him a few more seconds to come up with the proper response. “I’m sorry, Ms. Brockman. I wasn’t trying to patronize you. I guess what I am trying to say is that I am not used to this. I am used to seeing what’s right before me, whether it’s an exam or an X-ray. I don’t know how to quite fit you into the team.” She bristled again. He guessed she had dealt with a great deal of dancing around in her almost twenty-five years in the medical field. He threw up his hands. “Drat! I am not used to this. It’s like someone has handed me a diagnostic tool of incredible ability without any kind of orientation in how to use it.”

She let out her pent up breath in a whoosh, her anger melted away in an instant. “Incredible ability,” she repeated. “Do you mean that?” 

“From what Captain Crane told me, I would say yes. But you aren’t a ‘tool’ to be ordered up. You are a person.” Careful, Jamie. “Ms Brockman, I think we really need to sit down and work this out. You need to help me understand what you are able to do and what your limitations are. I am still a doctor, with a doctor’s training.”

“Forgive my outburst. I . . . I just have never been treated with any kind of . . . of….” 

“Respect? Belief?”

“Well, respect for my nursing abilities, yes. But for this ‘gift,’ no. And very little belief. Only my son seemed to feel that someday it would happen; that I would be believed.”

“Let’s get some coffee and you let me know how you want to proceed. We need to establish protocol for when I am here and when Seaview is on a mission.”

“Before we get started, Doctor, can I ask you a question? I know it’s going to sound silly….”

“Ask away,” Jamieson told her. “I will answer anything within my capability. If I can’t, I’ll tell where you can find the answer or give you a good reason why I can’t. Sometimes we deal with classified materials and you’re not cleared for that yet.” He was beginning to see a less prickly part of this woman now that she had let down her defenses. That she was a dedicated nurse was quickly evident from reading her resume and job history. He figured her to be a great asset to NIMR when she got used to things. Of course, if she was only able to head off danger to Seaview’s crew, that would make her worth her weight in gold.

She wasn’t bad to look at either. No raving beauty, but she had the most incredible dark eyes he had ever seen. That’s enough, Jamie. You have a job to do. Just because you are single again… He brought his mind back to the task at hand. Their next mission was in four days and he had to get everything in place here at the medical facility before he left. The last thing anyone wanted was to come back and find that she had bolted because one of the doctors had issues with her unusual ability or felt threatened by any diagnosis or information she might give. Her question surprised him. 

“I would really like to see Seaview; you know, take a tour,” she asked, her voice almost apologetic. “The way Lee, er, Captain Crane talked about her and all I’ve heard. I mean, if it’s all right.”

Doc couldn’t help it, he began laughing. “Sorry, Ms Brockman, but that was the last thing I expected to be asked.” He checked to make sure she wasn’t angry about his reaction. “You know, I shouldn’t be surprised, though. Seaview’s an incredible vessel. The admiral says he gets requests all the time from people wanting to see her. Some even offer to pay big money to do so. I don’t think there will be a problem with you having a tour. In fact, I would venture to bet that Captain Crane will be delighted to show you around himself.”

She smiled her thanks, then dropped her gaze to her hands neatly folded on her lap. “I want to be able to help in any way I can, Doctor Jamieson, but I don’t want to end up being the go-to person. Does that make sense?”

“You mean someone a doctor would go to if they were lazy or stymied?”

“Stymied? Yes, I would hope that would be the case. I have the greatest respect for the new medical advances, but I would hope I would be included on the team, as you called it, just as any other specialist might be called in.”

“May I ask some questions about your gift?”

“Of course.” 

There was that slight hint of tension in her answer, but not like it had been earlier.

“Explain to me just how you see what’s wrong with a person.”

“Most of the time when I touch someone; take their hand or feel where they say the pain is, I see inside them.”

“Like an x-ray?”

“A little, but most of the time it’s more like I have psychically cut into them. I mean I have seen inside the bronchial passages, the arteries feeding the heart, things like that. That’s optimal. Sometimes it’s vaguer than that; it’s more like a feeling that something isn’t right or that more needs to be done.”

Jamieson nodded. He searched his own experience for something akin to what she was describing. There had been a few times in his medical career when he had felt as though something wasn’t ‘right.’ Perhaps there was some common ground. “What about Captain Crane? How did that progress from seeing his pneumonia to seeing imminent danger? I think the captain said you had mentioned not having had that kind of . . . knowledge before.”

“I would call whatever I was seeing then more as a type of precognition. The way that came was new to me. The only time I have seen into the future has been in relation to the illness a person has.”

“In other words, you might see their death if you find an aneurism or cancer, right?”

Elana nodded. She could feel Dr. Jamieson’s interest. There was nothing phony about it. Still a little skepticism, but that was normal and she could deal with it. “In the case of Captain Crane, I could see his death in a way that it could be prevented. At least I hoped it would and it turned out I was right.”

“At almost the cost of your own life.”

“Captain Crane is very important.”

“Each life is important, Ms. Brockman,” he said softly, gazing deeply into her eyes. 

“Elana,” she corrected him, matching his interest. The coffee was forgotten.


End file.
